WSLL @ Your Service October 2010

Contents

What's New – Connie Von Der Heide

WSLL Now Accepts Credit Card Payments

We're very excited to announce that Wisconsin State Law Library customers who wish to pay for library products and services by credit card may now do so! We are equipped to accept credit card payments both in person and by telephone. For security purposes, customers who submit document delivery requests by email and want to pay by credit card will be asked to phone the library. (Never put your credit card number in an email message!)

Law firms and other businesses or agencies that are billed for photocopies and other library services may continue to use that option and remit payment by check.

Upcoming classes

There are still a few openings in our October 14 class, Researching Wisconsin Legislative History: Sources & Strategies. For complete information and registration forms, visit our Classes page.

Last published in 2006, this completely new edition focuses on the rights of consumers when personal property they've purchased or leased does not meet their expectations. The authors concentrate on defective new and used cars, wheelchairs and other assistive devices, manufactured homes, automobile repairs, and home improvements. Also analyzed are common law and statutory warranties that arise in the sale of a new house or condominium. Part I covers warranty law as it generally applies to most consumer transactions, including when express and implied warranties are created, when they may be disclaimed, proving breach of warranty, and the self-help remedies of cancellation and deduction of damages. Part II examines warranty law as it applies to particular situations, such as new and used car lemon laws, and state warranty laws covering hearing aids, wheelchairs and other assistive devices, and manufactured homes.

This latest edition also features several useful appendices that include sample notices of rejection and withholding of payments, sample complaints and discovery, and sample trial documents such as voir dire, opening and closing statements. Also included are sample jury instructions, and an outline of a direct examination of the consumer's expert witness.

This book provides practical information on basic techniques used in the valuation of intellectual property (IP). Anson divides his book into three main sections. The first addresses the questions of: What is IP? How is it identified and defined? And why is it different from other intangible assets? The second deals with how the valuation process works and includes discussions of the what, how, and when of valuing intangible assets. The final section addresses issues involved in managing IP and IP portfolios, and how to maximize the value of IP assets.

See our latest New Titles list for a list of new books and other resources.

For assistance in accessing these or other resources, please contact our Reference Desk.

Click To It: CLE Books Unbound – Carol Hassler

Digital access to the State Bar of Wisconsin's CLE "brown books," previously available through Loislaw, is now available by subscription to the WisBar-hosted Books Unbound. WSLL has purchased a subscription that provides access on all public computers in the library.

The Books Unbound inventory includes CLE brown binder treatises, judicial benchbooks, the Wisconsin Business Advisor series, and other State Bar soft cover publications.

There are two ways subscribers may access Books Unbound:

From wisbar.org, go to myStateBar, login and select myMedia in your profile.

A quicker way is to use the browser bookmark, http://books.wisbar.org. This provides a login screen, after which you immediately see a list of your books.

Click the "Launch Books Reader" button to see all your books, or choose a title from the list. Once you're in the reader, click through the table of contents in the left pane to browse chapters and subsections.

If you're not sure which section you need, try some key words in the search box at the top of the screen. The default search is basic, with the option to keyword search just the book you are currently viewing, or all the books to which you subscribe. Either option can potentially leave you buried in search results. Search terms are highlighted when you click into a result.

Since the Books Unbound search is powered by Google's search appliance, there are a few Google search methods you can use to force a more advanced search. (To view the sample searches linked below, first login to Wisbar and open up the Books Reader.)

Two periods between two numbers will search on a range of numbers.
EXAMPLE: 181.0301..181.0330 (searches for all statue sections in subchapter 3 of Wis. Stats. Ch. 181, statutes from the nonstock corporations Wisconsin statute chapter)

The Books Unbound reader offers a few tools. Clicking the "Print" button prints the entire chapter currently being viewed. The "Next" and "Previous" buttons are used to skip to the next or previous whole chapter (i.e. the numbered headings in the table of contents).

Checklists, forms, or other lengthy examples are included in these digitized books as clickable image files. Some forms are entirely represented by image files, while others are made up of both image files and copy-able text. With these forms, usually the header and footer are image files, and the body of the form is also shown in plain text.

Source: System Book for Family Law

For books that are normally issued with a CD of forms, like the System Book for Family Law, the digitized version also provides downloadable forms. However, you can't download them directly from within the book. Instead, after you've located the form name and number by searching or browsing the book, you'll need to go back to the myMedia tab on wisbar.org. For books that have supplementary materials, look for the "Forms" link underneath the book title. There you'll see a list of forms available for download.

If you're curious about Books Unbound, you can test drive limited sections of books. To do this, go to WisBar's list of Books Unbound titles and select one. Click the "Try Now" button on the product page to see a limited preview.

WSLL Recommends...

When researching employment law compliance, remember the Employment Law Manual for Wisconsin Employers. Authored by Milwaukee attorney Thomas P. Krukowski and published by Krukowski & Costello law firm, the 2010 edition contains over 1,300 pages arranged into 31 chapters that cover everything from the hiring process to employee discharge, benefits continuation, and recordkeeping and retention requirements. Here are just a few of the many features:

Detailed checklists to assist in auditing employer policies

A sample employee handbook, for drafting or auditing your own

Computers and privacy in the workplace

How to conduct employee background checks

COBRA health insurance continuation rules and forms

Termination checklist and recommendations

Which records to keep and for how long

The companion CD-ROM, also revised in 2010, contains all the sample forms and policies provided in the manual, including the sample employee handbook. To help researchers stay up to date, Krukowski also publishes two e-newsletters covering a current topic in employment law and OSHA compliance each month. Free registration and archives of both newsletters are available on the Krukowski & Costello website.

Tech Tip in Brief – Heidi Yelk

Tired of Keying? Say It Instead

When it comes to searching the web on a mobile device, every keystroke counts. So it's not hard to imagine why voice search tools are very appealing. A handful of new applications are currently offered free of charge:

Siri, an Apple product, allows users to ask a question which it then formulates into a web search. This free app is available for the iPod Touch and iPhone. According to its website, Siri may be awkward at times, as it might misunderstand some queries. However, the company is working to improve voice recognition and hopes to add other mobile platforms in coming months.

If you've ever considered voice recognition software for business or personal use, then the name Dragon Naturally Speaking is probably a familiar one. The Dragon app for the iPhone allows you to choose a search engine, and it allows searching of particular sites, such as Twitter or Wikipedia. More information and a product demo can be found on their webpage.

Google's mobile app with voice search is another free option. This tool is available for a wider variety of mobile devices, including iPhone, Blackberry and Nokia.

So if you'd rather say it than key it, check out these options for your mobile device.